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Draw the head. Sketch a simple circle with an oval for the mouth and two round-sided triangles for the ears. Make sure the head isn't too oversized for your paper since you still have to fit in the rest of the cheetah's body in proportion to it.

Draw the body. Use shapes as guides for it. Draw three ovals: a small one for the neck, a large one for the upper body, and a medium one for the back. Add in circles to connect these shapes. Remember, a cheetah's body is longer in comparison to other big cats, so incorporate that into your drawing.

Draw circles for the paws. Don't forget to add a long tail! At this point, you might be running out of room on the page, so if you want your cheetah's tail can be raised up in alarm or curled between his legs.

Add details and outline your cheetah. Don't forget to add its trademark spots! The image here displays generous application of fairly small spots onto the cheetah, but they can be as big/little/plentiful/sparse as you like. And in fact, they don't even need to be spots, since some cheetahs have splotchy markings and some don't have any pattern on their coats all. After that erase anything outside your black line.

Tips

Compare photos of cheetahs and figure out what type you'd like to draw (male or female, spotted or it doesn't have spots, agitated or content) before you begin so you can visualize it more effectively.

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About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 29 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 99,133 times.

To draw a cheetah, start by drawing a small circle for the cheetah’s head and a horizontal oblong for its body. Next, sketch the limbs using straight lines and simple shapes such as trapezoids and rectangles. Then, draw the body and tail using curved lines. Once this simple outline is done, add details to the cheetah’s face, including eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. You’re now ready to trace your cheetah with a pen, erasing any unnecessary marks as you go, and add spots or round rosettes. To learn how to draw a cartoon cheetah, keep reading!